Multiplex (webcomic)

Last updated
Multiplex-Logo.jpg
Author(s)Gordon McAlpin
Website http://www.multiplexcomic.com
Current status/scheduleConcluded
Launch dateJuly 10, 2005
End dateApril 10, 2017
Genre(s) Comedy, Film Commentary, Film Criticism

Multiplex is a comedy webcomic written and drawn by Gordon McAlpin which ran from 2005 to 2017. The comic focuses on the lives of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas and the movies that play there. [1] Originally envisioned as an animated short, Multiplex is visually inspired by cut paper animation and vector graphics. Three print collections of the webcomic were released from 2010 to 1017. McAlpin's webcomic ended in April 2017, and the series is to be rebooted in the form of a stand-alone animated film, titled Multiplex 10.

Contents

Synopsis

Multiplex is a webcomic about the employees and customers of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas located in a fictional suburb of Chicago. The Multiplex 10 employs a large number of young adults and has a wide variety of customers: many of the strips revolve around how the staff interacts with their customers, while others deal with what happens with the staff after the cinema has closed. [2] The series was set in real-time, and most strips include a date, making its many movie references more understandable. [3]

Characters

The cast of Multiplex consists mainly of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas, with some of the customers having recurring roles in the comic.

NameFirst StripSummary
Kurt Bollinger#1Kurt is at once the most immature and mature employee at the Multiplex 10, as he is often seen filling in for the largely absent managers when he's not behind a register, in booth, or concession. But when business has been taken care of, Kurt likes to make up games (in which he is often the only one willingly playing) to entertain himself and has been shown to be quite dangerous with a broomstick. He has been working at the Multiplex since he was 16.
Jason Atwood#3Jason is a sharp tongued and aggressive half Filipino who does not hesitate to speak his mind, even to customers. Jason's top five movies are The Incredibles , M , Throne of Blood , Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? and the restored cut of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil .
Becky#5Becky is shy, intelligent, and slightly nerdy. One of the most versatile staff members, she, like Jason, is known to work as a cashier, usher, concessionist, and projectionist. She has a crush on Jason, although no one besides her seems to know.
Melissa Recar#19Melissa is a clever, worldly brunette who has seen in booth, working concession, and ushering. A recurring character known as Stalker Boy has a particular fondness for Melissa, even going so far as to live in denial of her long-standing relationship with Kurt. Her radio "callsign" is "Racer Asylum," which is (sort of) her name backwards.
Franklin Onassis#21Franklin is probably the most sane staff member at the Multiplex 10. He shares his name with the character from Peanuts and is often called in to clean up very messy situations. His radio callsign is Black Panther, after the Marvel super-hero.

Some recurring customers include Björn Lager, an obese white middle-aged man akin to the Comic Book Guy, a "Creepy Loser" who once applied for a staff position at the Multiplex hoping to be able to meet some of the theater's female staff workers, and a "Stalker Boy" with an obsession for Melissa.

Development

McAlpin began posting Multiplex in July 2005. His brother Lawrence, a programmer, helped set up the website for him and later programmed the Multiplex iPhone app. When McAlpin began writing his webcomic, he liberally made use of the dynamic canvas size of webcomics, making his strips as long as they needed to be. [4] McAlpin originally intended to create Multiplex as an animated short, but abandoned the idea and later decided to publish it as a webcomic. [5] Visually, McAlpin was strongly influenced by cut paper animation and vector graphics, stating that "the flatness of it can be [a] beautiful thing." The writing of Multiplex was inspired by Archie , South Park , Clone High , and sitcoms like The Office and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia . [2]

In an interview with Newsarama , McAlpin stated that he is not fond of reading webcomics online, stating that print comics have four times the detail that digital comics have. McAlpin has worked in printing and publishing for most of his life, and stated "I love the weight to books, the design, the texture of the paper, and especially the higher quality reproduction of the art." A collection of early Multiplex strips was released in print in 2010 under the title Multiplex: Enjoy the Show. McAlpin noted that his webcomic's 500+ strip archive could be intimidating, and that a paperback print collection would make it easier for new readers to get into the series. McAlpin funded the release through crowdfunding on Kickstarter, setting a goal of $7,500 USD and raising over $12,500. McAlpin later suggested that he may have been the first webcartoonist to use Kickstarter to fund a print release. [4] [6] The book was published in September 2010 by Chase Sequence Co. Two more collected editions have been released since.

Multiplex ended its run in April 2017 and McAlpin began developing a stand-alone animated film, titled Multiplex 10. In order to fund the film, McAlpin raised over US$15,000 through Kickstarter. Multiplex 10 is set up as a prequel to the webcomic, featuring the characters as they appeared early-on. McAlpin also hopes to be running an animated series after releasing the film. [7]

Reception

Multiplex: Enjoy The Show received a positive review from The Chicago Tribune , which praised McAlpin's work for its "extremely detailed frames and multifaceted characters." [3]

Related Research Articles

Webcomics are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.

Serializer.net was a webcomic subscription service and artist collective published by Joey Manley and edited by Tom Hart and Eric Millikin that existed from 2002 to 2013. Designed to showcase artistic alternative webcomics using the unique nature of the medium, the works on Serializer.net were described by critics as "high art" and "avant-garde". The project became mostly inactive in 2007 and closed alongside Manley's other websites in 2013.

<i>VG Cats</i> Webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair

VG Cats is a webcomic written and drawn by Canadian cartoonist Scott Ramsoomair. Published on its own website, it follows the adventures of a pair of anthropomorphic cats, who both have an interest in video games, and often play the roles of characters in popular games that are parodied in the strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Farley</span> Freelance illustrator

Patrick Sean Farley is a freelance illustrator and Web page designer. Known as a pioneer of webcomics as a medium, Farley works out of Oakland, California.

<i>The Perry Bible Fellowship</i> Webcomic and newspaper comic strip

The Perry Bible Fellowship is a webcomic and newspaper comic strip by Nicholas Gurewitch. It first appeared in the Syracuse University newspaper The Daily Orange in 2001.

Rich Burlew is an American author, game designer, and graphic designer. He is best known for The Order of the Stick webcomic, for which he was ranked fifth on ComixTalk's list of the Top 25 People in Webcomics for 2007. He has also written several works for Wizards of the Coast's role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. He owns and operates a small press publishing company, Giant in the Playground, which he formed to publish his comic work.

Chris Crosby is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Keenspot, a company providing a platform and network for webcomics. They are also a comics writer and artist, with works including Superosity, Sore Thumbs, and Snap The Punk Turtle.

<i>Cyber Force</i> (comics) Comic book series

Cyber Force is a comic book series created by Marc Silvestri in 1992 through his publishing studio, Top Cow Productions, and published by Image Comics.

<i>Cyanide & Happiness</i> Webcomic series by Explosm Entertainment

Cyanide & Happiness (C&H) is a webcomic created by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, and Dave McElfatrick. The comic has been running since 2005 and is published on the website explosm.net along with animated shorts in the same style. Matt Melvin left C&H in 2014, and several other people have contributed to the comic and to the animated shorts.

<i>Girly</i> Webcomic by Jaqueline Lesnick

Girly is a webcomic created by Jaqueline Lesnick which follows the romantic relationship between two girls named Otra and Winter, as well as other citizens of the city of Cute-Town. It ran from 2003 until 2010. The author describes their work as, “a comic that went everywhere and did everything, for better or worse. But all in all it is a comic about 2 gals who love each other very much dawwww. Girly is a comic that helped sexually awaken a generation of readers, as well as (eventually) myself.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zuda Comics</span> DC Comics imprint for webcomics

Zuda Comics was DC Comics' webcomics imprint from 2007 until 2010. Some of the imprints series won awards and nominations from comic industry's Glyph Comics Awards and Harvey Awards. Bayou, Volume 1 was also named one of the 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens by the American Library Association.

<i>Theater Hopper</i> Webcomic about films

Theater Hopper is a semi-autobiographical webcomic based on the escapades of characterized versions of author Tom Brazelton, his wife Cami, and buddy Jared, as they discuss, attend, and purchase films. In 2008, it was self-described as the "longest-running movie-themed webcomic", ultimately being publishing from August 2, 2002 to December 31, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Kellett</span> American cartoonist

Dave Kellett is the creator and cartoonist of two webcomic titles, Sheldon and Drive, the co-author of How To Make Webcomics and the co-host of Comic Lab. He has been nominated for the prestigious Eisner Awards, as well as a Harvey Award, and won a Reuben Award.

<i>Zahras Paradise</i> Iranian webcomic and graphic novel

Zahra's Paradise is a webcomic and graphic novel by Amir Soltani and Khalil set in modern Iran. It has been described as a political webcomic dealing with real-time events. Its story follows a mother searching for her son, who disappeared around the time of Iran's 2009 elections. Serialized online beginning in early 2010, Zahra's Paradise was published in hardcover format in 2011 and has received numerous positive reviews in mainstream press and blogs.

<i>Brawl in the Family</i> (webcomic) Webcomic

Brawl in the Family was a gag-a-day webcomic written and drawn by Matthew Taranto. The webcomic was inspired by the Super Smash Bros. series and features characters from various video game franchises, predominantly Nintendo series such as Kirby, Super Mario, Pokémon, F-Zero, and Metroid. The webcomic concluded on October 3, 2014, having produced a total of 600 comics.

The history of webcomics follows the advances of technology, art, and business of comics on the Internet. The first comics were shared through the Internet in the mid-1980s. Some early webcomics were derivatives from print comics, but when the World Wide Web became widely popular in the mid-1990s, more people started creating comics exclusively for this medium. By the year 2000, various webcomic creators were financially successful and webcomics became more artistically recognized.

<i>Avas Demon</i> 2012 science-fantasy webcomic

Ava's Demon is a science fantasy webcomic written and drawn by Michelle Czajkowski Fus and colored by a number of colorists. The comic, which has been ongoing since 2012, is known for its painted art style and animations. The first physical publication of Ava's Demon was released in 2013 after a successful Kickstarter project, and another Kickstarter in 2020 became the most-backed webcomic Kickstarter at the time.

<i>Sarahs Scribbles</i> Webcomic

Sarah's Scribbles is a webcomic by Sarah Andersen started in 2011. Andersen initially published the webcomic on Tumblr, but has since released it on various services, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tapas and her own website. Sarah's Scribbles follows Andersen's experiences as a millennial and focuses on themes such as adulthood and maturity. The comic receives millions of views on the Tapas platform and has won multiple Goodreads Choice Awards and a Ringo Award. Andersen has published four print collections of the webcomic: Adulthood is a Myth; Big Mushy Happy Lump; Herding Cats; and Oddball.

Notable events of 2017 in webcomics.

References

  1. ↑ "Inside the Webcomic Studio with Gordon McAlpin". Comix Talk. Archived from the original on 2013-01-19.
  2. 1 2 "All Is Full Of Linky-Love: 3 Questions With Gordon McAlpin, Creator Of Multiplex, By Dale Lazarov". Bleeding Cool. 2010-09-24. Archived from the original on 2010-09-29.
  3. 1 2 Crowder, Courtney (2011-01-04). ""Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show: Book One" by Gordon McAlpin". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2011-01-16.
  4. 1 2 Arrant, Chris (2010-12-14). "Movie Theater Parody, "Clerks" Style in MULTIPLEX Webcomic". Newsarama. Archived from the original on 2011-08-04.
  5. ↑ "An Interview with Multiplex's Gordon McAlpin". Comix Talk. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Heading to the 'Multiplex' With Writer/Artist Gordon McAlpin". MTV Geek. 2011-01-28. Archived from the original on 2011-01-28.
  7. ↑ Arrant, Chris (2017-05-01). "MULTIPLEX Ends 12-Year Run, Begins Push For Animated Adaptation". Newsarama . Archived from the original on 2018-10-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.